Import Competition, Product Differentiation and Mark-Ups - Microeconomic evidence from Swedish manufacturing in the 1990s

This paper examines how import competition from different origins and the presence of product differentiation affect market power of Swedish manufacturing firms during the 1990s. Applying Roeger’s method (1995), I perform the empirical analysis based on detailed firm-level data and estimate an average mark-up level of Swedish manufacturing firms. The general finding is that imports from both European countries and other highincome countries outside Europe impose disciplinary effects on price-cost margin of Swedish manufacturing firms. The strongest effect is from the recent EU member countries. However, the competitive pressure associated with import is relaxed in the presence of product differentiation.Import competition; Mark-up; Market structure; Product differentiation

Has Import Disciplined Swedish Manufacturing Firms in the 1990s?

This paper analyses how increased integration and the ongoing enlargement of European Union’s internal market affected the performance of Swedish manufacturing firms. The pro-competitive effect of international trade, in terms of intensified import competition on domestic firms’ market power, has been investigated extensively at industry level. In contrast to previous studies, this analysis is based on detailed firm-level information. Import data are divided into an EU member group and a group of recently proved EU member candidates. It focuses on how imports from these groups, together with imports from other non-European trading partners, impact on firm profitability, while taking firm-specific efficiency effects into account. The findings are that import from the new EU-candidates seems to have a substantial disciplinary effect on Swedish firm profits, whereas import from EU-member countries only appears to have an impact on firms with large market shares and in highly concentrated industries.Import discipline; Market structure; Market share; Firm-level efficiency

On homotopy categories of Gorenstein modules: compact generation and dimensions

Let $A$ be a virtually Gorenstein algebra of finite CM-type. We establish a duality between the subcategory of compact objects in the homotopy category of Gorenstein projective left $A$-modules and the bounded Gorenstein derived category of finitely generated right $A$-modules. Let $R$ be a two-sided noetherian ring such that the subcategory of Gorenstein flat modules R\mbox{-}\mathcal{GF} is closed under direct products. We show that the inclusion K(R\mbox{-}\mathcal{GF})\to K(R\mbox{-}{\rm Mod}) of homotopy categories admits a right adjoint. We introduce the notion of Gorenstein representation dimension for an algebra of finite CM-type, and establish relations among the dimension of its relative Auslander algebra, Gorenstein representation dimension, the dimension of the bounded Gorenstein derived category, and the dimension of the bounded homotopy category of its Gorenstein projective modules.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0810.1401 by other author

Exports as an Indicator on or Promoter of Successful Swedish Manufacturing Firms in the 1990s

We study the link between exporting and productivity at the firm level. Like in previous studies we get support for that more productive firms self-select into the export market. In addition, and contrary to many of the former studies, we also obtain evidence for that exporting further increases firm productivity. Exporting firms appear to have significantly higher productivity than non-exporting. Moreover, exporters - mainly firms that increase their export intensities - have higher output growth than non-exporters. Reallocation of resources between firms may then have contributed to overall manufacturing productivity growth. Hence, we try to quantify the importance of reallocation.Exports; productivity; reallocation; decomposition

QCD Thermodynamics at Intermediate Coupling

The weak-coupling expansion of the QCD free energy is known to order g_s^6log{g_s}, however, the resulting series is poorly convergent at phenomenologically relevant temperatures. In this proceedings, I discuss hard-thermal-loop perturbation theory (HTLpt) which is a gauge-invariant reorganization of the perturbative expansion for gauge theories. I review a recent NNLO HTLpt calculation of QCD thermodynamic functions. I show that the NNLO HTLpt results are consistent with lattice data down to temperatures T~2T_c.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures; talk given at the conference "Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum IX", August 30 - September 3, 2010, Madrid, Spain; to appear in the AIP proceeding